Men's hockey: Delano bantam, 15, commits to SCSU

Garrett Pinoniemi has not played in a high school game yet, but he has had some experience at a national camp and has picked where he wants to play college hockey.

Pinoniemi, who turned 15 in July, has verbally committed to play for the St. Cloud State men's hockey team. Pinoniemi played for the Delano Bantam "A" team last winter and will be a freshman for the Delano High School team beginning in the fall.

The week Pinoniemi turned 15, he was one of 22 players from the state to participate in the USA Hockey 15 Boys Select Camp in Buffalo, New York. Players were split into 12 teams that had 18 players on each roster.

He played forward for a team that was coached by St. Cloud State assistant coach Garrett Raboin.

The following week, he made an unofficial visit the next week and then made his verbal commitment.

"They showed me around the rink and the campus in general and they're doing a nice job of upgrading a lot of stuff at the rink," Pinoniemi said. "It's the right time, I guess. Just to know where I'm going to go to school, I can just play hockey and keep getting better. I don't have to worry about it."

SCSU connections

Pinoniemi, who is a 5-foot-10, 130-pound center, also had some contact with the University of Wisconsin about his college career.

"Wisconsin was one of the schools, but they're recruiting a lot of players who are going to be there at the same time and it's going to be packed there," said Pinoniemi, who has three older sisters and an older brother. "St. Cloud was a much better fit. It felt right.

"My sister, Bridget, is going to be a senior there and one of my other sisters (Janelle) plans on going there."

Pinoniemi cannot sign a National Letter of Intent until the fall of his senior year of high school. While some of the traditional powers in college hockey receive a fair number of verbal commitments annually, it is not the norm for the Huskies.

In February 2014, Ryan Poehling verbally committed to the Huskies while he was playing for Lakeville North High School at the age of 15. Poehling will bypass his senior year of high school and join the Huskies this fall as a 17-year-old.

Before Poehling, the last St. Cloud State player to verbally commit and play for the Huskies at 15 was former forward Nick Oliver.

"This really was a family decision," said Tim Pinoniemi, Garrett's father. "He had many conversations with us about wanting to play college hockey and stay in Minnesota.

"He talked early on about playing for Minnesota. But we have some family history with St. Cloud."

Besides his ties to the university with his sisters, Pinoniemi's uncle, Steve Haataja, played forward for the Huskies from 1987-91.

"We had been talking to him about the program," Tim said of Haataja. "Garrett is a small-town kid and I think part of the big reason he likes St. Cloud is it's a little smaller campus than some of the other schools."

Hockey ties

He comes from a bit of a hockey family. Garrett's older brother, Ryan, played goalie for the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 2012-13 and Tim is a former Osseo High School hockey player.

"I didn't have the opportunities that Garrett has," Tim said of his son's playing abilities. "He's a fairly smart player and I always tell him, 'I think you got that from your mom.'

"His mom was an excellent student at Augsburg."

One of the things that impressed the Pinoniemis about St. Cloud State was that the coaching staff did not set a year as to when Garrett would join the Huskies.

"It is kind of surreal that somebody at 15 years old is thinking about their college career," said Tim, a police officer for the St. Paul Police Department. "Coach (Bob) Motzko told us he doesn't do this unless it's somebody he really likes. And he said it's not only the hockey part, but the part about what type of person he is.

"It is obvious that you also have to be a good kid. With Coach Raboin being around him and seeing him for numerous days straight at the Selects, they must think he's OK."